Care and treatment
Looking after people with diabetes
People with diabetes (and their carers) manage their diabetes on a day-to-day basis. This involves adhering to strategies such as insulin or drug administration or diet and exercise regimes, aimed at keeping blood glucose levels within the recommended range. However, different groups of people with diabetes have different needs to help them achieve this such as children, young people, the elderly, people with mental health problems, people with learning difficulties and black and minority ethnic groups.
People also have different needs at different stages of their lives. For example depending on the age at diagnosis; during the transition from childhood to adulthood; before and during pregnancy; as a hospital in-patient; as an elderly person living in their own home, or as a resident in a care home. Within the different groups of people, there is variation between individuals. What works well for one person does not necessarily work well for another.
Additional variation results from differences in the ways in which health care professionals treat people with diabetes, particularly where there is a lack of established best practice. Variation in the availability and quality of local services for people with diabetes is a further contributing factor. The end result is inequality and variation in the care and treatment of diabetes and in the prevention, care and treatment of complications. Research is needed to improve the care and treatment of everyone with diabetes irrespective of age, gender, race or their personal circumstances.
It is important to note that, as with other diseases or conditions, effective care and treatment may be identified in advance of understanding the causes of diabetes.
Establishing evidence-based practice, with improvements in care and treatment, will help people with diabetes to live longer and, live healthier for longer with improved quality of life.
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